Sony is ratcheting up the camera phone wars with the Android-powered Xperia Z1s ($528 direct). Available exclusively on T-Mobile, the Xperia Z1s is a waterproof smartphone with a 5-inch 1080p display, just like its predecessor, the Xperia Z. The Z1s has an upgraded 20.7-megapixel camera with fun lens effects, a much larger battery, and a faster processor. The camera still isn't as good as it needs to be, and there are some other minor issues, but the Z1s is an excellent choice if you want a speedy phone for multimedia or gaming that you can get wet.

Design, Display, and ConnectivityThe Xperia Z1s measures 5.74 by 2.79 by 0.31 inches (HWD) and weighs 5.71 ounces, which makes it noticeably larger and heavier than the 5.1-ounce Xperia Z. It's still quite attractive, though. The handset has glass front and back panels, with an IP58-rated waterproof coating that also supports finger tracking underwater, and a smoked silver and black plastic band wrapped around the edges. Covered charger and microSD memory card slot ports sit on the left side, along with a center-mounted docking port. The bottom edge houses the speakerphone and mic behind a long rectangular grille. On the right, there's a covered SIM card slot, a circular silver power button, a volume rocker, and a camera shutter button, while the 3.5mm headphone jack is on the top edge.

The 5-inch, 1080p Triluminos display looks sharp at a very tight 441ppi, but not particularly vivid or bright. It's a bit of a letdown coming from a Samsung Galaxy S4's AMOLED display, or the super-bright HTC One. There's a prominent bezel at the top and bottom, with a much thinner one on either side of the display; this explains why the phone is unusually tall given the display size. Typing on the on-screen keyboard is easy in portrait mode.

The Xperia Z1s supports LTE and HSPA+ 42. Its LTE modem is Category 4, so it handles the maximum speeds of T-Mobile's upcoming 20+20 LTE network. You also get 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, NFC, and Bluetooth 4.0. In a series of speed tests, the Xperia Z1s averaged 12 to 14Mbps down and 7 to 15Mbps up in midtown Manhattan on T-Mobile's rapidly expanding 4G LTE network. The Xperia Z1s also works as a wireless hotspot with the appropriate data plan.

Call Quality and ReceptionVoice quality was mixed; we were hoping for an improvement over the Xperia Z's inferior call quality, but we didn't get it. Through the earpiece, callers sounded trebly and a bit harsh. There's plenty of gain available, but it's not pleasant to listen to. Transmissions through the microphone had the opposite problem: They sounded muffled and indistinct, and the Xperia Z1s's mic let plenty of Manhattan street noise through. An iPhone 5s on T-Mobile sounded much better in all cases; it suppressed background street noise, and my voice was clear, crisp, and still warm-sounding in both directions.

The Xperia Z1s also supports Wi-Fi calling, but my test unit kept throwing a SIM error whenever it was activated, even though the SIM worked fine otherwise for both voice calls and data. I also noticed some reception issues; my test model kept grabbing LTE and then losing it, and sometimes it dropped altogether with a red X for 15 seconds or so before coming back online. T-Mobile saw nothing wrong on its end, so I'll chalk it up to a bad SIM card for now.

Calls sounded fine through a Jawbone Era Bluetooth headset. Voice dialing worked fine over Bluetooth using Google's built-in voice dialer. The Bluetooth stack is buggy, though; sometimes it took a minute or more to pair with the Jawbone Era, and once it froze up for a minute while searching for nearby devices. The speakerphone sounded clear and distinct, but should go louder than it does, which is an odd oversight given the large size of the phone. The oversized 3,000mAh battery should be good for extra-long battery life; we're currently testing it and will update this review as soon as we have a result.

T-Mobile's contract-free plans start at just $50 per month for unlimited voice calls and texting and 500MB of data, after which T-Mobile throttles your data speeds to 2G. You can also get 2.5GB for $60 and unlimited data for $70. As before, these plans are stellar values compared with Verizon or AT&T.

Interface, Apps, and MultimediaUnder the hood is a 2.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with an Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB RAM. The Xperia Z1s runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, and a KitKat upgrade is in the works, but there's no confirmed release date. Benchmark scores were excellent across the board; as you'd expect, the Xperia Z1s is as fast as the Galaxy Note 3 and all of the top-end Android tablets we've reviewed. You won't have any problem running any of the one million third-party apps in Google Play; even graphically intensive games will be no problem. The Xperia Z1s supports the fitness-tracker networking protocol ANT+, and Sony plans to market the Z1s alongside its SmartWatch 2, which we've also reviewed separately.

Jamie Lendino is the managing editor for consumer electronics and mobile at PCMag.com and has written for the site and print magazine since 2005. Previously, Jamie was the Editor In Chief of Smart Device Central,...

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